Arizona ran a candidate. Kerry Lake suggested to reporters
they might want to arm themselves in the run up
to the fall election.
To supporters, I should say she made the comments at
a campaign rally on Sunday.
The next six months is going to be intense and
we need to strap on our
let's see, what do we want to strap on?
We're going to strap on our
our seat belt.
We're going to put on our helmet
or your carry lake ball cap.
We are going to put on the armor of God,
then maybe strap on a Glock on the side of
us just in case
you can put one here and one in the back
or one in the front,
whatever you guys decide, because we're not going to be
the victims of crime.
We're not going to have our Second Amendment taken away.
We're certainly not going to have our First Amendment taken
away by these tyrants.
Not great audio there if you couldn't hear it.
She said she wanted to put on a seat belt,
put on the armor of God and yes,
a Glock on her hip,
and then got into some comments about the Second Amendment.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is doubling down
on his comments.
We told you about these yesterday where he urged citizens
to,
quote, forcibly remove pro Palestinian protesters blocking traffic on major
bridges and roads across the country.
This week, Cotton told people to quote take matters into
their own hands against demonstrators and to confront them with
the use of physical force.
Here is Senator Cotton doubling down on that stance to
NBC News.
Vigilantes are blocking traffic in the streets when moms trying
to get kids to school or people trying to go
to the hospital or just trying to get to work
should be removed from the streets.
Yes, I said that I posted it.
I would say it again today and I would do
it myself if I found myself in that situation.
But you said people should take matters into their own
hands.
Can you just clarify what that means?
Because some people think it could call for violence.
It calls for getting out of your car and forcibly
removing pro Hamas vigilantes who are blocking the streets on
major highways so traffic can continue.
Senator Cotton maintains he's not calling for violence against the
protesters,
but did share a video on Twitter showing a group
of men dragging protesters off the road with the senator
captioning,
quote, how it should be done.
So Joe and Mika, we talked about this yesterday.
Senator Cotton says he does not want you to go
and use violence against the protesters.
We also talked about yesterday how annoying it is and
we think probably an ineffective way of winning hearts and
minds to lock down roads and prevent people from getting
where they're going. But that's separate from what the senator
is saying here.
Well, yeah. And of course he went down the list
of things that we said
make us angry when idiots go out and decide they're
going to protest by blocking roads,
stopping people from getting their children to school,
or
people that may be taking their elderly parents to a
hospital.
It is just so dangerous and again counterproductive for any
cause,
anybody that does that. I'm against your 'cause.
Just, you know, I think that's how most motorists would,
would, would agree with it.
But will he can't really
slip out of the fact that he was talking about
ripping the skin
off of people's hands. He was talking about throwing people
off the Golden Gate Bridge.
I mean he this happened on the Golden Gate Bridge,
said, well, Ark. So I would throw them over the
bridge.
That's where they they need to do that.
They need to. And so
you have again
him talking about violence and you just ask yourself what?
Why? Why does a politician think
that's the road to to popularity?
Carrie Lake talks about the armor of God and carrying
a Glock.
For some reason with that audience,
carrying a Glock gets a bigger cheer than the armor
of God.
I think back when I was running,
at least for people in in
most audiences, Armor of God would probably do better than
strapping on a Glock 'cause if you say that,
people go, what? What's wrong with him?
And And it goes again,
the audience cheering about, cheering for that,
you know, reminds me of Donald Trump and audiences gleefully
talking about
a man in his 80s
being awakened from sleep and nearly being bludgeoned to death
by a hammer.
They still celebrate. And I say they not just Donald
Trump.
You can all say, oh,
how sick Donald Trump.
Look at the audience. The audience is cheering.
They're laughing that a man in his 80s
got bludgeoned almost to the point of death
by a guy that went in,
you know, screaming, you know,
the MAGA chant, Where's Nancy?
Where's Nancy? So this is again,
this is just again the glorification of violence.
And the big question is
why? Why does this glorification of violence sell so well
in Donald Trump's Republican Party?
It. It's just it. It it
it's it's sick. It's sad.
It's UN American, it's scary.
And and Willie, once again,
we we have to look at this for what it
is or what it appears to be like.
And it's it's almost cult like behavior,
mimicking him, taking on his positions,
even if some of them are evil and cruel and
violent.
Yeah, you everyone's doing sort of a poor man's version
of Donald Trump at these campaign rallies.
I think that's what you saw from Kerry Lake at
that rally.
And to Joe's point, it was almost like she didn't
get the response she wanted by saying armor of God.
So she said I better throw the Glock into the
conversation.
And she did. And Senator Tom Cotton
obviously is taking cues from Donald Trump,
too. They know what works with their base,
and they're going to keep pushing on that.
And when people in the media call them out and
question it,
there's some value for them with that base to double
down on it.
So that's part of what we saw yesterday.